William Ernest Henley (1849 A1903) was an English poet, critic and editor. Henley spent much of his life sick. He had tuberculosis of the bone and at one point had his left leg removed below the knee. His 1875 poem Invictus is his most famous work. It is thought that he wrote this poem in response to the amputation of his leg. The majority of poems in this collection come from A Book of Verses (1888) and London Voluntaries (1892-3). The poems were all written between 1872 and 1897.